2018 Pandorga PX

Ramiro Ibáñez is the man behind Bodegas Cota 45, which he founded in 2012 in a former boat repair shop in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Prior to this, Ramiro had studied to be an oenologist and worked as a consultant for a number of major sherry producers, while also having his nose deep in the history books.

The history of the area is strongly influenced by exports, especially to the English, who demanded huge quantities of strong (and often sweet) wines up through the 19th century. But Ramiro learned that for a period from about 1830 until the beginning of the 20th century, producers had made dry wines with lower alcohol for the locals. Thus, Ramiro was determined that Cota 45 should recreate this tradition to express the terroir of his region in the best possible way.

Ramiro makes single-vineyard wines with and without oxidation from several unique terroirs while simultaneously working on replanting forgotten local grape varieties. In the cellar, the wines ferment spontaneously in extremely old (up to 150 years) Manzanilla casks without the use of temperature control and with a minimal addition of sulphur. Some wines create voile, others do not, but a recurring theme is that these wines (quite deliberately) do not excel with their fruitiness, but instead with an enormous minerality and salty core that makes it the perfect food companion in many contexts. We have long been looking for wines that had the aromatic profile and mineral expression of Sherry, but without being burdened by the high alcohol, and with Bodegas Cota 45 we have finally found the answer.